Global fintech SumUp has implemented Confirmation of Payee (CoP) in the UK, as the company takes additional steps to protect merchants and users from bad actors and fraud.
CoP is a name-checking service, launched by Pay.UK in 2020, which “validates recipients’ account details before transfers are sent to ensure money is always arriving to the right place.”
Antoniya Ditsova, Product Lead – Global Banking at SumUp comments:
“It’s vitally important that as bad faith actors seek to harm merchants and disrupt their business SumUp has robust policies in place to provide a layer of protection. Providing the tools a business needs goes beyond facilitating payments or creating online stores. It’s critical that anti-fraud measures are in a merchant’s toolkit these days.”
CoP is an important step in a time “when digital payments and bank transfers are ever-increasing.”
According to Which?, 100mn transfers “were made per year in the UK a decade ago – it’s now 350mn per month, and still growing.”
SumUp implementing CoP instils greater confidence in “the services offered and merchants can freely conduct business knowing that a safety net is in place.”
CoP notably addresses certain types of authorised push payment fraud “by providing a platform for SumUp to provide effective warnings to payers about the risks associated with progressing with a payment to an account where the name does not match. It also prevents human error made when entering account information for transfer.”
A typical flow of actions for merchants, when interacting with CoP, will run as:
- Details are an exact match: they’re free to proceed to the next step without delay or additional steps required
- No match of the details: on-screen warning and advised against proceeding
- Partial details match: prompted to check details again for any inaccuracies
- Details cannot be verified: prompted to check details again for any inaccuracies
CoP is a forthcoming regulatory requirement “that SumUp is meeting ahead of the official deadline.”
As covered, SumUp is says that it is “a global financial technology company driven by the purpose of levelling the playing field for small businesses.”
Founded in 2012, SumUp is the financial partner “for more than 4 million small merchants in 36 markets worldwide, helping them start, run and grow their business.”
Through its SuperApp, SumUp can “provide merchants with a free business account and card, an online store, and an invoicing solution – as well as in-person and remote payment acceptance seamlessly integrated with SumUp’s card terminals and point-of-sale registers.”
SumUp is committed to “leveraging its success to make the world a better place, pledging to donate 1% of its revenue to support environmental causes and advocating for educational and entrepreneurial projects around the world.”
